James Arden Grant RP was born in Liverpool in 1887 and studied at the School of Art there, where he also later taught. He continued his training at the Academie Julian in Paris and in London at Central Technical School, and eventually became vice-principal of Central School of Arts and Crafts. In the years before World War I, Grant was a member of the Sandon Studios Society, the social hub for Liverpool’s artistic community.

Grant married Ann Stringer Dawson in 1912, and a son, Ian, was born in 1925. In 1932 Grant became a fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. He was also President of the Pastel Society from 1945. A portrait by Grant was singled out for praise in the Glasgow Herald’s review of the Society’s Annual Exhibition in 1959.In 2001, Sothebys sold the contents of 41 Ladbroke Square, the home of Ian Grant, including many of his father’s pictures. Ian had trained as an architect, was a founder and first secretary of the Victorian Society, and led the restoration of many important interiors, including the Palace of Westminster and the Royal Albert Hall. He died in 1998.